Labour MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke, has been accused by the then Justice Secretary, Sir Robert Buckland, of lobbying ministers over her husband’s sexual assault case. She allegedly asked Buckland to move the date of the case to avoid publicity. However, a spokesman for Elphicke has dismissed the allegations as “nonsense”, while Labour has questioned why the claims were not raised earlier.
Charlie Elphicke, Natalie’s husband and a former Conservative MP, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women and subsequently jailed for two years. Natalie, along with four other Conservative MPs, were also found to have breached parliament’s code of conduct by trying to influence legal proceedings. They had written to senior members of the judiciary expressing concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for Charlie.
Responding to the latest allegations, Natalie’s spokesman stated that Mr Elphicke was also supported after his imprisonment by a large number of Conservative MPs who had known him for a long time, some of whom had visited him and lobbied on his behalf independently, which was nothing to do with Natalie. Labour also rejected the characterisation of the meeting between Buckland and Elphicke, stating that if Buckland had any genuine concerns about the meeting, he should have raised them at the time, rather than making claims to the press now that Natalie has joined the Labour Party.
Natalie, who had been viewed as being on the right of the Conservative Party, left the party for Labour last week, which surprised many in Westminster. Her move has been criticised by some. On Thursday, an old interview featuring Natalie re-surfaced, where she claimed her ex-husband was “an easy target” for false allegations because he was “attractive”. She apologised for her comments the same day
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